Copy downloaded mail from laptop to PC?

[Nawdry]

I prefer to use POP3, so that my mail is downloaded to my PC (or laptop) rather than remaining on remote mail server. This basically means that when using laptop (e.g., on trips) I can only access mail directly on server rather than using Tbird with its filing system.

If I use Tbird on laptop, messages will not be visible to my PC, even though I have Email set to stay on server until I delete it.

If I download mail on laptop, is there a way to copy this later into Tbird on PC, so it will be accessible along with all my other mail on the Tbird file system there?

Thanks — LH

[DanRaisch]

What you are saying is only true for folders other than the Inbox. If you have set TB to leave messages on the server, both the PC and the laptop will download the same messages from the Inbox folder. With a POP type account, that is the only server folder accessible to Thunderbird, regardless of which computer connects to the server first. That's a limitation of the POP3 email protocol, not of Thunderbird or any other email client.

To have the same messages in all folders, all the time, on both machines; you might look into running Thunderbird Portable from a flash drive or USB hard drive that you can connect to both computers.

[Nawdry]

>> If you have set TB to leave messages on the server, both the PC and the laptop will download the same messages from the Inbox folder.

What I've experienced is that, even with server set to keep Emails after they're read, if one device reads them, they're not accessible to the other device.

So I'm wondering if there's some way to download mail on one device and then copy those downloaded Emails to the other device. Specifically, I'd like to be able to download Emails with TB to my laptop on a trip, then copy them into my TB on PC when I return home. That way, I can get the Emails into my main (home PC) TB file system, which is important.

>> To have the same messages in all folders, all the time, on both machines; you might look into running Thunderbird Portable from a flash drive or USB hard drive that you can connect to both computers.

So this would mean having a single copy on TB on a portable device (USB or hard portable drive) and plug it into whichever device I'm using at the time? But I already have TB installed on both PC and laptop. Could I copy the PC version (with all my current files) to the portable device and then run it from there? Would I need to delete TB from either or both PC, laptop?

Thanks — LH

[LIMPET235]

Hi,
I'm not a Thunderbird guru, like Dan but this may be a way...
> http://kb.mozillazine.org/Importing_and ... _your_mail

Try Paolo's "ImportExportTools" extension.

[DanRaisch]

If you are not able to access messages from that POP account from both installations of Thunderbird, it sounds like the server is not respecting the "Leave messages on server" setting. Who is the email provider?

Keep in mind that with Thunderbird the program and the user data are stored separately. A standard version of the program can not be run from a flash drive because it must be installed. The Portable version is intended for use on removable media. The data, on the other hand, can be transferred from one computer to another or from a computer to a removable medium and accessed from that device.

The problem with the solution suggested by Limpet is that it would require a constant manual movement of message data before and/or after each trip. That is, you would have to select the messages received on the laptop but not on the desktop and moving those messages to a separate folder so only those unique messages would be imported to the other computer. If the need to do that occurs only infrequently, that might be an attractive option. Otherwise, switching to an IMAP account would solve the issue of which machine was in use when new messages arrive and which machine was used to send a particular message.

[Nawdry]

If you are not able to access messages from that POP account from both installations of Thunderbird, it sounds like the server is not respecting the "Leave messages on server" setting. Who is the email provider?

Sorry for delay in responding I have been researching these issues and trying to devise a solution for my basic problem. No solution yet.

Email provider is Gmail. After they're downloaded on one device (e.g., laptop), the Emails do remain on the server, but the other device (e.g., home PC) ignores them.

Keep in mind that with Thunderbird the program and the user data are stored separately. A standard version of the program can not be run from a flash drive because it must be installed. The Portable version is intended for use on removable media. The data, on the other hand, can be transferred from one computer to another or from a computer to a removable medium and accessed from that device.

I am aware of this. On my home PC I keep my profile and other user data (which includes all downloaded Email) on a portable harddrive. But I keep all my data on this same drive. While I do back it up to a second portable drive, I'm reluctant to take my main data drive away with me on an occasional trip.

The problem with the solution suggested by Limpet is that it would require a constant manual movement of message data before and/or after each trip. That is, you would have to select the messages received on the laptop but not on the desktop and moving those messages to a separate folder so only those unique messages would be imported to the other computer. If the need to do that occurs only infrequently, that might be an attractive option.

Manual movement of files from laptop to main PC may be what I need to do. However, it would be a cumbersome process because on home PC my mail is sorted into a couple of dozen local subfolders. It sounds like the only way to use this manual transfer method is to first move the downloaded files on the laptop all to a special "transfer" folder and then import them onto the home PC from that folder. That's gonna mean trying to sort maybe a thousand or so jumbled Emails (from several days of travel) into their proper folders.

I do want to make sure to thank everyone so far for the feedback and suggestions.

Lyndon
..

[makaiguy]

Caveat, up front: I don't use gmail as it has too many non-standard quirks for my taste. Consequently I'm only guessing here.

But it sounds to me that the problem is with gmail not operating like most other servers in this regard. I'd suggest logging into your gmail account via your browser and looking through all the POP settings to see if you can find one that affects this. Perhaps there is a gmail POP setting that does something like only downloading unread mail, such that the second computer in doesn't get messages already-downloaded to the first one in.